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The incident involved Drexel Burnham Lambert and Michael Milken, and it marked the end of an era. Only it had nothing to do with junk bonds or hostile takeovers, as such. Instead, the firm's fall 1989 decree that the junk bond king's lawyer, Arthur Liman, could no longer bill first-class airfare to Drexel symbolically brought the front-of-the-fuselage curtain down on Wall Street's 1980s epic of grand luxe travel.
But now that frugality in travel and entertainment has been institutionalized at financial firms-persisting despite the Street's rebound since the '87 crash-a curious thing has happened. Travel industry experts and global bankers alike say that travel on the economy plan (that being a relative term in high finance) has become surprisingly tolerable, even pleasant.
Travel is easier, declares John Harris, Standard Chartered Bank's new regional head of financial institutions for the U.K., Europe and the Middle East. "The airlines are giving better choices, a wider array of prices, upgrades and more frequent flights." Concurs a Nomura Securities International official, "It's a lot easier to get there--wherever we're going--than it was a couple of years ago because the airlines are more efficient and cost-effective, and are scheduling for the passengers' convenience, not for theirs."
Nor is it only the airlines, caught up in a dogfight for passengers, that are extending a new hospitality to budget-minded business travelers. Hotels, too, are doing more to adapt to the new austerity by slashing some rates and offering package deals, as well as their industry's answer to frequent-flier plans. "We used to go to the hotels looking to negotiate rates. Now they come after us," marvels one European travel agent. Hans Lerch, director of Kuoni Travel in Zurich, explains the phenomenon by noting that "the whole world is a buyer's market."
UP THE DOWN CLASS
Being bumped from first class by your firm's travel police isn't such a stigma anymore. Several market-savvy carriers have responded to firms' "downclassing" to eliminate first-class travel for all but the top honchos by "upclassing" their own business class to make it grander. Scandinavian Airlines System, Aer Lingus, Finnair and other carriers have done away with first class altogether. First class, laments Hongkong Chinese Bank CEO Roger Lacey, may be a "dying breed." Lacey is partial to...